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The mentions of the Sebasta in Statius’ Silvae show the relevant role played by public games and spectacles in Flavian Rome – especially during Domitian’s reign –, as a consequence of the fast and unstoppable ‘hellenization’ of imperial power. Statius’ literary example does also confirm how Rome, thanks to the political and military power, has managed to replace Greece as a reference model also in the field of public games. Although literary or rhetorical schemes, Statius’ poetry is also a precious testimony of the classical tradition of Naples as a Greek city, therefore a learned city able to compete in cultural terms with the city of Rome.

Il contributo affronta criticamente le principali questioni connesse alla genesi, alle carattaristiche e alle funzioni dell'epigramma prefatorio in ambito latino, con una particolare attenzione al periodo compreso tra Marziale e gli autori della tarda antichità.

The beginning of Calgacus’ speech delivered in Tacitus’ Agricola (30, 1) shows the extraordinary skill with which the historian, thanks to the couple hodiernus dies / initium libertatis, shapes a testeful crossing between rhetoric and historiography in which, together with the historiographical models, there is a notable incidence of Cicero. Moreover, those words of Calgacus seem to be inspired by the tradition of the Latin political and ideological lexicon of Greek origin; in this particular case, a possible starting model could be a passage from Xenophon’s Hellenica.

The paper focuses on the presence and the meaning of the adverb paulatim in Tacitus, especially in narrative contexts in which the historian faces with political, historical and institutional transitions or transformations. Although Tacitus seems to follow a historiographical tradition in this use of paulatim, which probably dates back to Sallust, the influence of epic and didactic poetry is not to be excluded.

Studio sull'influenza del poeta Ovidio nella letteratura del mondo ispanico, tra tradizione e modernità

Martial’s epigram 10, 10 represents a particular case, if not a unicum, of satiric epigram, especially because of its target: a consular. This single poem confirms the need to recognize in Martial’s epigrams also a political-social component, that, even though it’s not comparable with the works and the thought of other contemporary authors, like Tacitus, stands out as a significant social and historical document of a wider crisis in Roman society. Martial builds this peculiar literary strategy wisely mixing the tradition of the epigrammatic genre and that of Latin satire, shaping with epigram 10, 10 more an ‘epigrammatic satire’ than a ‘satiric epigram’.

Attraverso l'analisi delle principali fonti letterarie e storiche si ricostruisce criticamente il delicato rapporto di Roma con i popoli italici nel periodo compreso tra l'età repubblicana e i primi secoli dell'Impero.

The paper focuses on the Catullan manuscript IV F 19 of the National Library of Naples, dating back to the second half of the XVth century. A deep analysis of the document as well as of the corrections and the marginalia to the text of Catullus aims at demonstrating that the manuscript has a notable relationship with the first editions and commentaries on Catullus published in the second half of the XVth century. Then, the ownership note shows that the codex belonged to the private library of the humanist Antonius Seripandus. It is also particularly worth noting that the manuscript is an hitherto unnoticed indirect testimony of the first two fragments of the poet Furius Bibaculus, inserted by the scribe within the text of Catullus’ poems.

Claudio Buongiovanni explores Naples’ cultural diversity, suggesting that the influx of Italians forced on the region by Sulla in 82 BCE revitalized the reputation of ‘learned Parthenope’ among the Roman aristocracy and intellectual elite as a centre where learning flourished in an environment of elegance, luxury, and refinement. Statius’ pride especially in his native Campania with its bicultural tradition encourages him to play down the devastation caused by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE and focus rather on restoration and regeneration in the region and on the euergetism of leading citizens who readily contribute their wealth and talent to construct public buildings and enhance the coastline with tasteful architecture.

After a brief critical survey both on the concept of 'obscuritas' before Macrobius, between rhetoric and philosophy, and on the canonical division between 'rerum obscuritas' and 'verborum obscuritas', the paper focuses on the presence and the meaning of 'obscuritas' in Macrobius’ 'Commentaries' on the 'Somnium Scipionis'. Through the analysis of the text and of its relatonships with Greek and Latin auctores and with the tradition of Plato’s interpretation, the paper highlights not only the persistence in Macrobius’ work of the longstanding crossing of rhetoric and philosophy typical of ancient exegetical literature, but also Macrobius’ double aim of defending Cicero’s work from the charges of obscurity and of characterizing his exegetical efforts not as a pure repetition, but as an original version of the Latin venerable 'auctor'’ thought

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Bibliografia degli scritti di Giovanni Polara aggiornata al 2014